What is the Right way to Source?

If anyone reading this participated in the discussions then you will note that there are a lot of individual opinions on the subject of citing sources for photos. As a group, @steemcleaners collectively decided not to voice an opinion until we could discuss the issue a bit more fully.

After careful consideration we decided that a post pointing out the reasons why it is useful to the community for contributors to consider citing sources for photos, graphics, and content even when they may be licensed under Creative Commons 0 or Public Domain would be appropriate and hopefully promote some tolerance and prevent strife within the community.

Assumption of Ownership

As a platform that encourages posting creative content, it is easy to assume that when you read a post or see a photo that the curator posting that content is the “owner” of that content. It’s also easy to assume the opposite is true in the context of steemit.com being a social media platform.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle. Not everything curators find here will be “original”, yet contributors will voice interesting insights, beautiful photos, original graphics, or even interesting photoshopped images.

So the question is how do we as a community recognize the parts of an author's post that is the contributor's original work and the parts that are taken from other sources? I think the easiest thing to do is to cite all your sources. This doesn’t have to be a long tedious process of posting links under each individual image or quote, although we would encourage users to do this as it is more professional and may lead to better rewards from curators.

Example of Sourcing

For those wishing to simply cite a list of sources used, at the bottom of the page include a section labeled “Sources:” and paste links as you write your post as we have done in this post and in the image provided below:

The Grey Area of Sourcing

Do use the Markdown to denote quotes such as the one here where @patrice commented on the post under discussion.

it is a gray area that users are going to need to be tolerant on. Personally, when I'm browsing, as long as the source is cited and it isn't tagged #photography then I give it a pass.excerpt

While @patrice doesn’t advocate using copyright material in her comment, it is important to reiterate the point that this is a “gray area”. Sometimes as a community and as a group the best we can do is encourage users to provide sources and information and let individual users decide for themselves what is relevant, interesting, and of value.

Final Thoughts

As a group we strongly encourage each individual to evaluate the given “evidence” before taking the action to upvote, flag, or comment on a post. Our hope is that as individuals and as a group we can do our part to help steemit grow into an unique platform that is successful for everyone that contributes with their creative works, thoughts, and opinions. @steemcleaners believes that encouraging users to post in a way that their own contribution is easily differentiated from their source material will lead to better understanding within the community and help curators in determining the subjective value of a user’s post.

The other thing is people can always ask the creator to use an image. I would be happy if people asked me and would let them use them but nobody ever does actually ask. Anyway most of my photos are portraits so they probably aren't the kind of photos most people want to use.

That's a very good point. Some users would like to see their work used by others, some not so much. I would also suggest asking before using another steemit members youtube video, that could lead to hard feelings.

Actually this could potentially be built into Stemit itself so that people could label each image with the correct tag (separate from the regular 5 tags). That would make it more convenient and would also make people stop and think before they use images.

So, do you think the end of every post should include a "works cited" paragraph? I do agree works need to be cited but it seems to take away from the post stylistically. Would it be proper to include citations under the picture and skip works cited at the end of a post? Or should it be like a paper/book where it is cited throughout the paper/book and at the end(like you did in your post)? Very interesting post to ponder!

Honestly, I'm happy either way. I prefer cited inline but Markdown for me is a pain to do. I'm not used to it. I'm not that comfortable with HTML either. So I understand when users just throw in the links at the bottom in an effort to make their post look more attractive without spending a lot of time citing sources.

The important part is the sources are cited. Those who take the time to do it in an attractive way will probably be rewarded more for it.

I have noticed many posters are actually citing the origins of pictures and video used. I have seen the citations done both ways. Nice to see others respecting the property of their fellow man by giving the author credit for their work!

Thanks for the shoutout! :) For those who are also interested in the philosophical discussion about what constitutes "property" and if ideas can be protected as property, I really enjoyed this post by @jaredhowe. As I argued in my post referenced above, I think this is about being a respectful community, signaling to one another we are here as cooperative agents, but I also really liked commenting back and forth with Jared on his views.

Very insightful post. Citing sources is very important. Even in general writing, it's a common courtesy to cite your source (s). Because if you don't, you are intentionally/or unintentionally misleading the readers into believing that you are the original author... and this, is unethical. Great post!

Still relevant a year later! This is connecting content to allow a great overall community! I am grateful for upholding the honorable ethics of the BEST content creators! Thanks for sharing this and I am sharing it too!